A priest at the funeral of executed gangland victim Derek 'Del Boy' Hutch has called his killing "shocking, barbaric, violent and cowardly".

Just hours after one of his closest pals, Jason 'Buda' Molyneaux, 27, was gunned down in the capital's latest murder, Gardai formed a ring of steel around Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Dublin's Sean McDermott Street.

Molyneaux was meant to be carrying Hutch's coffin at the ceremony.

Chief celebrant, Fr Michael Casey, told mourners at Hutch's funeral this morning: "The havoc, pain, suffering and devastation that the family and indeed larger community must endure is wrong, pointless and without justification."

30/01/'18 Friends, family and mourners pictured outside the family home of Derek Coakley Hutch on Buckingham Street, Dublin this evening for a prayer service for Hutch. Hutch was shot dead in a halting site on the Cloverhill Road almost two weeks ago.. Picture Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin.

"This reign of violence and total disrespect for human life carried out by people who have become soulless is frightening and leaves us all vulnerable.

"This spiral of violence, revenge, retaliation and the ensnarement of many in this web of what can only be described as evil has led to the destruction of the most precious gift - that of life itself and our call to be human."

Hutch was shot dead near Cloverhill prison in Dublin last Saturday week.

One theory being investigated is that the hit, committed by the Kinahan gang, was organised from the jail.

'In loving memory of Derek Hutch'

Fr Casey said that despite Derek’s mortal remains lying before the church, his spirit is free "because he was loved and loved".

"Those with hardened, closed hearts have cut themselves off from life’s source, which is compassion, forgiveness, being reconciled. They have become living dead.

"They and their actions and the dark world they inhabit has no place in this sacred place nor indeed in this community.

"We are a people who celebrate life, and birth of new life, and love and gratitude for a long life lived well. As a wise person said to me: 'No parent brings a child into this world to take the life of another person'."